Krueger insisted: "Schneiderlin and Rodriguez are part of the core that we have the intention of keeping at Southampton.

"They're not for sale and are part of the club entering the season, in and around the rest of the core players excited to build forward.

"All the stories are false. They are not for sale, that is correct. September 1 will be the Judgement Day."

But it seems Judgement Day will fall somewhat more swiftly with Spurs upping their interest in both players, understood to be keen to re-join former Saints boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Krueger's comments appeared to put the onus on Schneiderlin and Rodriguez - the striker is recovering from the knee ligament surgery that destroyed his World Cup dream - to hand in official transfer requests.

Yet with Spurs confident of landing the duo, that is set to be the spark for a new round of departures, with Saints having already banked more than £90m.

Right-back Clyne has been watched by Liverpool, with Cardiff among those interested in landing centre-half Fonte.

Crystal Palace and Swansea are both keen on former Chelsea midfielder Cork, who like Fonte is entering the final year of his existing Saints contract.

While new boss Koeman is hopeful of landing Celtic keeper Fraser Forster and Argentina World Cup left-back Marcos Roja among three signings, the Dutchman is facing a fight to keep hold of the trio.

The seemingly endless parade out of the club is causing apprehension and Krueger's public claims will not have eased the concerns after he made a series of strange comments.

Krueger, dubbed "Wreck-it Ralph" by some wags, added: "We had a clear strategic approach to this summer and didn't put any player up for sale. We said we would watch the process, listen and look at how the team was going to evolve.

"It's quite clear that multiple players were interested in taking a short-cut to Champions League football. We set premiums on those players and reached those premiums.

"It was in the best interests of the club and our re-build to make those deals and continue to build forward with players and a team that wanted to go the hard way into Europe.

"There was interest in our players before the World Cup and our executive worked to put deals together to give us a strong position to reinvest and build.

"We were completely ready to have players stay against their desires if we didn't reach the target prices.

"In the next few weeks we'll have players coming in and we will make transfers to strengthen the squad.

"We understand the frustrations of the fans but we needed to stay silent to bring the best deals for the club."